finished! zip up for stuart
Yesterday, I finally finished Stuart's birthday sweater.
His birthday was March 12.
I also got him a bottle of scotch for his birthday, so I didn't hear much complaining that his sweater wasn't done. (No, that's not scotch in his cup. It's coffee.)
He might have refrained from complaining about not having a new sweater because he was afraid it would be a flop.
It wasn't a flop. It actually worked out rather well! Though I did sweat over it a good deal. First, I thought it wouldn't be long enough, so I added a couple inches to everything. Then it turned out everything was a couple inches too long, and I had to do surgery on every piece to fix it. Then the sleeves didn't fit into the armholes and I had to pick out the seams and rip back a little bit to add length to the armholes. In the end, everything worked out, but for a little while there I was worried that all the work would be for naught and I'd have to donate the sweater to charity.
I love this goofy GQ pose:
There's only one teeny tiny problem: the zipper is a little short. I didn't think my husband would want to zip it up all the way, but it turns out he does, so I'll have to pull it out and sew in a longer one. This kind of makes me want to cry because sewing in a zipper is a lot of work, but it's better to fix the detail that annoys him. These finishing details really are what make or break a sweater, I think. If I could do it over, I would probably add a little more to the collar, too, and as long as I'm re-doing the zipper, I may go ahead and do that. But I'm still calling this finished for today!
Patterns: Zip up cardigan, by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: Cascade 128 superwash, about 9 hanks in dark navy blue
Sticks: Size 9 for ribbing, size 10.5 for everything else. I used KP Zephyr interchangables. (I like them. The see-through aspect of the needle tips didn't bother me.)
Mods: None, as it turned out, though I thought I had to adjust the length.
Comments: This is a lovely design. The fact that it's a man's sweater that my husband likes and will wear says a LOT, since he is incredibly picky about his clothes (re: the plainer the better). I'm not sold on the superwash yarn, though. It's very soft and lovely, but it stretches like all get-out when you wash it. I had to stick the whole thing in the dryer for at least 30 minutes to get it back into shape, which worked, but doing this a lot will wear out the sweater pretty quickly. It's also expensive. The only reason I bought this instead of non-superwash was that I couldn't find enough of any other bulky yarn in the right color!
All in all, I'm pleased - and relieved - with how this sweater turned out, but I'm ready to knit something small now. Like maybe socks. I think it's time for more socks.
His birthday was March 12.
I also got him a bottle of scotch for his birthday, so I didn't hear much complaining that his sweater wasn't done. (No, that's not scotch in his cup. It's coffee.)
He might have refrained from complaining about not having a new sweater because he was afraid it would be a flop.
It wasn't a flop. It actually worked out rather well! Though I did sweat over it a good deal. First, I thought it wouldn't be long enough, so I added a couple inches to everything. Then it turned out everything was a couple inches too long, and I had to do surgery on every piece to fix it. Then the sleeves didn't fit into the armholes and I had to pick out the seams and rip back a little bit to add length to the armholes. In the end, everything worked out, but for a little while there I was worried that all the work would be for naught and I'd have to donate the sweater to charity.
I love this goofy GQ pose:
There's only one teeny tiny problem: the zipper is a little short. I didn't think my husband would want to zip it up all the way, but it turns out he does, so I'll have to pull it out and sew in a longer one. This kind of makes me want to cry because sewing in a zipper is a lot of work, but it's better to fix the detail that annoys him. These finishing details really are what make or break a sweater, I think. If I could do it over, I would probably add a little more to the collar, too, and as long as I'm re-doing the zipper, I may go ahead and do that. But I'm still calling this finished for today!
Patterns: Zip up cardigan, by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: Cascade 128 superwash, about 9 hanks in dark navy blue
Sticks: Size 9 for ribbing, size 10.5 for everything else. I used KP Zephyr interchangables. (I like them. The see-through aspect of the needle tips didn't bother me.)
Mods: None, as it turned out, though I thought I had to adjust the length.
Comments: This is a lovely design. The fact that it's a man's sweater that my husband likes and will wear says a LOT, since he is incredibly picky about his clothes (re: the plainer the better). I'm not sold on the superwash yarn, though. It's very soft and lovely, but it stretches like all get-out when you wash it. I had to stick the whole thing in the dryer for at least 30 minutes to get it back into shape, which worked, but doing this a lot will wear out the sweater pretty quickly. It's also expensive. The only reason I bought this instead of non-superwash was that I couldn't find enough of any other bulky yarn in the right color!
All in all, I'm pleased - and relieved - with how this sweater turned out, but I'm ready to knit something small now. Like maybe socks. I think it's time for more socks.
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ann